Arbour Square resident with Parkinson's takes up horseback riding

November 15, 2016   By Bob Keeler

Arbour Square resident Bob Johns rides Doc at Shady Hollow Assisted Riding. Submitted photo —Shady Hollow Assisted Riding

LOWER SALFORD >> It’s been 13 years since Bob Johns was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

“It came as a shock,” the now-69-year-old said.

It hasn’t stopped him from keeping active, though.

In September, Johns, who about three months ago moved to Arbour Square in Harleysville, came home with a pair of ribbons — one for second place and one for third place — after taking part in his first horseback riding show.

Johns, who has only been taking horseback riding lessons for a short time, said it’s not just about Parkinson’s.

“I’m doing it because I want to show other people who have Parkinson’s or any other disability, to show them that they can do it just as well,” Johns said. “Your life doesn’t finish just because you’ve got Parkinson’s.”

Born in London, Johns said he came to the United States in 1990 and became a citizen in 1993. In England, he served 10 years in the army and 14 years as a police officer and social worker. After moving to the United States, he was the director of highway safety in Bucks County. Karie Conner has been Johns’ private caretaker for the past three years.

“He told me he had a bucket list and several things on that bucket list and one of them was horse riding,” Conner said.

When she stopped in at a horse tack shop one day while Johns was living in Wyomising, Berks County, Conner remembered about horse riding being on his list, asked about assisted riding programs and found out about Shady Hollow Assisted Riding in Birdsboro, she said.

Johns, who has been taking the lessons there once every two weeks since August, said he will be taking a break over the winter, but plans to begin again in the spring.

“I want to keep active as long as I can, so I’m just looking at all the things that are possible for me, the things that I’m interested in and things that I can continue to do with Parkinson’s,” Johns said.

Another of the bucket list items that has been completed is taking a helicopter ride, Conner said.

“Through Assisted Riding Lessons, individuals with special needs can improve their self-confidence, increase muscle strength, enhance balance, learn teamwork, and develop social skills. The horse is an equalizer in an otherwise unequal world,” Shady Hollow says on its website, hugahorse.com.

The horseback riding therapy helps people suffering from depression, Michele Cooper, Shady Hollow’s program director, said.

“It also is wonderful because it engages so many muscles simultaneously, and it’s fun,” she said. “You’re working and you don’t know it.”

Riders can form a connection with the horse, Conner said.

Johns said he feels a connection with Doc, the horse he’s ridden most of the times at Shady Hollow.

Conner said Doc is “a gentle giant.”

“He’s a good, gentle horse,” Johns said.

“If I tell him to do something, he’ll do it,” he said. “I can tell him to turn around on a dime.”

Johns and Doc demonstrated that in the Sept. 17 annual Shady Hollow Assisted Riding show, Conner said.

Johns was the oldest rider and the only one with Parkinson’s, Cooper said.

The show is judged, but isn’t a competition, she said.

“It’s more of a horsemanship demonstration,” Cooper said. “All of our riders are judged on their individual abilities, not against each other.”

There are aids for riders at Shady Hollow, including having a special ramp to help get on the horse, along with having a trainer and walker assist with the riding, Johns and Conner said.

“Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a chronic and progressive movement disorder, meaning that symptoms continue and worsen over time. Nearly one million people in the US are living with Parkinson’s disease. The cause is unknown and although there is presently no cure, there are treatment options such as medication and surgery to manage its symptoms,” the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation said on its website, pdf.org.

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